Bruins come back to life with win over Sabres
Team improves to 20-7-6
The Boston Bruins snapped their four-game losing skid Wednesday night versus the Buffalo Sabres with a 4-1 win.
Charlie Coyle, Mason Lohrei, and Morgan Geekie all scored for the B’s. Jake DeBrusk and Brad Marchand both had two assists, while Trent Frederic, David Pastrnak, and James van Riemsdyk each had one.
Lohrei opened up the scoring for the Bruins with a goal at 4:19 of the first period. Coyle padded the lead to 2-0 with a power play goal at 13:42.
“We always want to get out to a lead if you can. and then it’s up to us to push that lead, build on our game, play the right way,” Coyle told reporters. “We had to get that one back. To be a good team, there’s going to be a little lapses, right? But it’s up to us. If they have a good shift, that next line comes out…We’ve just got to keep building on our game.”
Coyle scored his second power play goal of the night, making it 3-0, at 4:18 of the second period. Geekie extended it to 4-0 at 13:44 with a wrist shot.
“Anytime you can win, it always helps,” DeBrusk told the media. “I think that means there’s a lot of things that we’re doing right, and as a group, we didn’t like how we [went into] the break. Had a couple days to reset and came out with a good effort tonight, had some good goaltending, and just rolled with it.”
The Sabres were able to put one on the board at 5:11 of the third with a slap shot by Erik Johnson.
The Bruins were 3-for-4 on the power play and 6-for-6 on the penalty kill.
“Number one, Swayman, I thought was terrific. And then I just thought when we were down to three, we really kept them on one side of the ice, and our sticks were to the middle so we didn’t get seamed,” Head Coach Jim Montgomery told reporters about the penalty kill.
The Sabres have allowed 48 goals in the first period this season, the most in the NHL. They are also third for most goals allowed by a team this season, with 124.
“We’re passing up good opportunities, we’re not supporting each other,” Sabres forward Alex Tuch told reporters postgame. “It just kind of adds up. It’s a snowball effect, and each guy has to look at one another and try to work for one another, because it’s five against four. I mean, we shouldn’t be out there and getting outchanced. It’s confidence, it’s swagger. We obviously don’t have it right now, and we’re going to work to get it back.”
Jeremy Swayman allowed one goal and had 25 saves. The win improves his record to 10-2-4, and his save percentage of .929 puts him at second in the league.
“Coming back after the break, three days off, it’s not going to be a real clean game,” Montgomery said. “We had moments we struggled with getting back into it, too, but overall, it was a pretty good hockey game by us.”
The B’s will head back home to have a rematch against the New Jersey Devils on Sat. Dec. 30. The last time the two faced each other was Dec. 13, which ended in a 2-1 OT loss for the Bruins.
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